LONDON -- (Marketwire) -- 01/08/13 -- City Index UK - Risk consolidates at higher levels as FX treads water. Japan's finance minister gave the euro a boost overnight as he said Japan will buy ESM bonds with the country's FX reserves.

The market initially saw this as a further measure to weaken the JPY with some speculation that the decision was also of global political importance with Europe not entirely happy about the JPY being deliberately weakened.

The move in EUR/JPY had caught the intraday market wrong footed as an earlier article in the WSJ had boosted the JPY after the report speculated that some Japanese companies had concerns that the JPY had fallen too fast and was impacting on fuel imports.

The AUD was the stand out under performer in the FX world overnight after Australia published the largest trade deficit in November since March 2008. The deficit widened to AUD 2.6 billion with the consensus looking for AUD 2.3 billion.

Today's data highlights consist of the Eurozone economic sentiment, retail sales and unemployment along with the German current account and factory orders releases.

Across the pond this afternoon we get the NFIB small business survey whilst the Fed releases consumer credit data for November and Alcoa kicks-off the earnings season.

About City Index:

City Index is one of the world leaders in spread betting and CFD trading. Established in the UK in 1983 we have grown to become leading providers of contracts for difference, FX and spread betting over the past 29 years.

Foreign exchange, commonly known as 'Forex' or 'FX', is the exchange of one currency for another at an agreed exchange price on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Forex is the world's most traded market, with an average turnover in excess of US$4 trillion per day.

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